Be Encouraged. Discover Happiness. Love Freely.

conversation

I’m back and I’ve missed you!! I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get back to doing what I love. To be completely transparent I needed a break because I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Yes, this is a normal part of life, but I admit that I didn’t exercise healthy ways of dealing with stress. My initial response has been to shut down or say “I’m fine”! I wanted more for myself, for my family and I needed to see immediate results.

I’ve spent a ton of time focusing on nurturing my faith in Jesus Christ. Something that I’ve always ranked last in my life, but now that has shifted. I’ve also prayed about seeking peace, health and direction for my future.

Basically, I’ve lost sight on what I wanted. One thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to write because I enjoy it. I’m also passionate about encouraging others and healing relationships, so writing is one way I can do that.

It’s been forever since I’ve written a post and so much has changed. Fast forward a few years: I’m married to an incredibly amazing man, we relocated to a bigger home from an apartment, and our lives changed for the better after we had our son. So, life came at me fast, but that’s ok. 🙂

I’m here to say hello and that I’ll be getting back to sharing stories, resources and encouragement with my online family!

I’m hoping this may reach someone who may have been struggling to get back into a routine that they’ve lost sight of or something that brings them joy. You’re probably never going to find the most “perfect” circumstances to begin again and another day will be lost if you don’t start today. It’s also perfectly reasonable to give yourself time to regroup and refresh when you feel the need to do so.

To be encouraged in faith, love & happiness, be sure to follow my blog!

Thanks for joining me again for the new #TeachMe series. Those of you who have been keeping up with my posts for a while know that the theme of my blog focuses on mending relationships. I’ve spent quite some time now providing insight, new perspectives, and advice on how to improve your romantic relationships, as well as those between friends and co-workers.

Today, I wanted to shine some light on another important aspect of our lives…the parenting relationship. Now, I’m no certified expert in this area, so today I include myself in learning something new.

I think many of us can agree that communication is one of the top priorities in nurturing a healthy and successful relationship. I’m sure many of you have mastered the skill of understanding baby talk…but, hopefully you can agree that this alone can become challenging. Young children appear to have so much to say, and often times they have not yet fully developed the vocabulary to express themselves. Both parent and child may then become easily irritable. An increase in emotional and behavioral concerns from the child can take place as a result.

Play therapy is a way for both parent and child to begin learning how to communicate with one another.

“Play relieves feelings of stress and boredom, connects us to people in a positive way, stimulates creative thinking and exploration, regulates our emotions, and boosts our ego” (Landreth, 2002).

Initially, play therapy was created to treat mental, behavioral and psychosocial concerns, with weekly sessions with your child and a trained play therapist. But I don’t see the harm in using this technique for any child under the age of 10, and with parents who want to improve their interactions with their child/decrease behavioral and emotional concerns. Just be sure to gain as much knowledge as possible in this therapy technique.

I had the opportunity to participate in play therapy, and filial therapy (teaching parents how to use play therapy with their kids) during my grad program. I absolutely loved this! Now, I know what many of you must be thinking…

Why would I need someone teaching me how to play with my children?

I already play with my kids…and we have fun!

I completely get that you may have these thoughts initially. I wanted to highlight the difference between play therapy and just everyday play. Watch this quick video here on play therapy, to get a better idea of what this entails.

Play therapy helps parents to learn more about their children. Typically, children are unable to express themselves verbally. For example, as a parent you may not get an accurate account of how your child’s day was (either at school or daycare), through verbal descriptions alone. In addition to these types of questions, parents can allow their children to take the lead through play, to gain a better understanding on what they are feeling, and what they have experienced.

You have to allow the child to lead completely, refrain from guessing at what the child may be doing during play, and fight the urge to “help” them complete a task that you know they are capable of doing on their own. For example, asking your child things like: what do you want me to do next, where should I sit, what do you want the police officer to say? Try not to assign any names or labels to any of the toys until your child does so first (ie.the car may not be a “car”..may be a spaceship!).

Your child will begin gaining confidence, and learn how to better express themselves. Again, this type of play is separate from your everyday play (30 mins-1 hour, weekly or as often as you’d like).

The toys that are recommended to assist in this type of play expression:

Sunday’s on Be Free 2 Love, will now be dedicated to meeting new people!

You never know who will cross your path, and what purpose they will serve in your live. In my experience so far with life in general, so many others continue to encourage and inspire me, and many have no idea how much they are appreciated. Let’s take a moment to say hi to someone new, and possibly gain a long-term friend.

In recognition of today, I ask that you do the following:

Please share one fun fact about yourself.

Please share at least one goal you plan to reach for the week. The more you say it, the more you’ll make it happen!

Leave a link to your page, so others can get to check out your space.

Want to share this post with others? Be sure to pingback and reblog this post, and tag #Friendships.

If you need help with figuring out how to add a link in your posts on wordpress, check out the link here, and the image below:

Hopefully this image will help explain how to do this better. Or you can simply copy and paste the link from another blog site, and paste the link on yours.

I’ll be a team player, and start the process!

Fun fact about me: I’ll be traveling to Mexico in just a few weeks for vacation!!

My goal for the week: Work out at least 2x. I fell off again, and need to get it together! So, I’ll work my way back up to more days.

*I give credit to the meet and greet to Dream Big, Dream Often, for inspiring me to reach out to new people each day. Check out his blog for some cool tips on how to reach your goals!